The early liberal figures that libertarians now describe as their fellow "classicalliberals" rejected many foundational assumptions which dominated most earlier theories of government, such as the Divine Right of Kings, hereditary status, and established religion, and focuses on individualfreedom, reason, justice and tolerance..

Early in the 20th century, classicalliberalism took a backseat to the ideas of modern liberalism which embraced central planning of the economy by the state and social welfare.

Libertarians argue that there is no interruption, no massive rejection of the past and no fork in the classicalliberal tradition - only a single uninterrupted tradition, the only one which does lay claim to such theorists as Locke, Hume, Smith, Jasay and Bastiat, as opposed to Hobbes, Rousseau, Proudhon, Marx.